Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind [135]
“Good morning, my son. Good to see you again,” he said in his most friendly voice. The smile, though for another reason, was still on his lips.
Carl blinked and squinted at the brightness of the light. “Good morning,” he said in a groan. Then, his eyes looking about, thought to add, “Father Rahl.”
“You slept well,” Rahl assured the boy.
“You were here? Here all night?”
“All night. As I promised you I would be. I would not lie to you, Carl.”
Carl smiled. “Thanks.” He lowered his eyes shyly. “I guess I was kind of silly to be scared.”
“I don’t think it’s silly at all. I am glad I could be here to reassure you.”
“My father says I’m being foolish when I get afraid of the dark.”
“There are things in the dark that can get you,” Rahl said solemnly. “You are wise to know it, and to be on guard for them. Your father would do himself a favor to listen, and learn from you.”
Carl brightened. “Really?” Rahl nodded. “Well, that’s what I always thought too.”
“If you truly love someone, you will listen to them.”
“My father always says for me to keep my tongue still.”
Rahl shook his head disapprovingly. “It surprises me to hear this. I had thought they loved you very much.”
“Well, they do. Most of the time anyway.”
“I’m sure you are right. You would know better than I.”
The Master’s long blond hair glistened in the morning light; his white robe shone brightly. He waited. There was a long moment of awkward silence.
“But I do get pretty tired of them always telling me what to do.”
Rahl’s eyebrows went up. “You seem to me to be of the age where you can think and decide things for yourself. A fine boy like you, almost a man, and they tell you what to do,” he added, half to himself, shaking his head again. As if he couldn’t believe what Carl was telling him, he asked, “You mean they treat you like a baby?”
Carl nodded his earnest confirmation, then thought to correct the impression. “Most of the time, though, they’re good to me.”
Rahl nodded, somewhat suspiciously. “That is good to hear. It is a relief to me.”
Carl looked up at the sunlight. “But I can tell you one thing, my parents are going to be madder than hornets that I’ve been gone so long.”
“They get mad because of when you come home?”
“Sure. One time, I was playing with a friend, and I got home late, and my mother was real mad. My father took his belt to me. He said it was for worrying them so.”
“A belt? Your father hit you with his belt?” Darken Rahl hung his head, then came to his feet, turning his back to the boy. “I’m sorry, Carl, I had no idea it was like this with them.”
“Well, it’s only because they love me,” Carl hastened to add. “That’s what they said, they love me and I caused them to worry.” Rahl still kept his back to the boy. Carl frowned. “Don’t you think that shows they care about me?”
Rahl licked his fingers and smoothed them over his eyebrows and lips before he turned back to the boy and sat once more in front of his anxious face.
“Carl”—his voice was so soft that the boy had to strain to hear—”do you have a dog?”
“Sure,” he nodded, “Tinker. She’s a fine dog. I had her since she was a pup.”
“Tinker,” Rahl rolled the name out pleasantly. “And has Tinker ever been lost, or run away?”
Carl scrunched up his eyebrows, thinking. “Well, sure, a couple times before she was grown. But she came back the next day.”
“Were you worried, when your dog was gone? When she was missing?”
“Well, sure.”
“Why?”
“Because I love her.”
“I see. And so then when Tinker came back the next day, what did you do?”
“I picked her up in my arms and I hugged her and hugged her.”
“You didn’t beat Tinker with your belt?”
“No!”
“Why not?”
“Because I love her!”
“But you were worried?”
“Yes.”
“So you hugged Tinker when she came back because you loved her and you were worried about her.”
“Yes.”
Rahl leaned back a little, his blue